acknowledged, under your majesty's hand, and direct to the lord Knyvet, in anno. 1613, together with some other litle things, delivered, for your majesty, to Arthur Bodrane, page, for your majesty's use, in July and August last past, and your petitioner shall ever pray, &c."

About this period of her life, after her recovery from the deep dejection that followed the loss of her son, she caused her favourite artist, Van Somers, to paint several portraits in different costumes, which still remain at Hampton Court. Her costume, when she followed the chase, must occasion both amusement and amazement to persons interested in hunting. In the first place, she was pleased to ride hunting on a peaceable-looking, fat, sorrel steed, with a long cream-coloured mane-altogether, looking as if it claimed kindred with that valuable breed of cart-horses called the Suffolk Punch-good creatures, but never meant for the sports of the field.

When mounted on this most unique hunter, she wore a monstrous farthingale of dark green velvet, made with a long tight-waisted boddice, a very queer grey beaver hat of the clerical shape, called a shovel, with a gold band and a profusion of fire-coloured plumes, and this formidable head-tire is mounted on a high head of hair, like a perriwig, elaborately curled and frizzed. The corsage of the gown is cut very low, but the bosom is covered with a transparent chemisette and a Brussels lace collar, and Brussels lace cuffs of the three tiers; buff leather gloves, with gauntlet tops, complete this inimitable hunting-dress. The queen's features are rather handsome; she has lively brown eyes, a clear complexion, and an aquiline nose, which droops a little towards the mouth; the expression of her face is good-natured, but rather bold and confident.

Sometimes, when hunting, the queen took cross-bow in hand, and shot at the deer from a stand. But the only instance recorded of her majesty's exploits in hitting a living object, is that she killed king James's beloved dog Jewel, or Jowler, "his special and most favourite hound." The king, seeing his canine darling lie dead, stormed exceedingly for awhile, before any one dared tell him who had done the deed; at last one of the queen's attendants ventured to break the matter to him, saying, "that the unlucky shaft proceeded from the hand of her majesty,” highness in the same sentence to specify the same person. This paper is one of the Heriot documents, edited by the Rev. Dr. Stevens.

which suddenly pacified him in the midst of his wrath. "It seemed," said the writer of the letter which preserves this odd incident, "that the affection of king James for his queen increases with time, for they never were on better terms. He sent word to her not to be concerned at the accident, for he should never love her the worse.' Next day he sent her a jewel worth 2000l., pretending it was a legacy from his dear dead dog.""

In the painting of the queen in her hunting costume, her dogs are introduced by Van Somers, they wear ornamented collars, round which are embossed, in gold, the letters "A. R.;" they are miniature greyhounds, a size larger than Italian greyhounds. These little creatures, we think, were at that time used for hunting hares. The queen holds a crimson cord in her hand, to which two of these dogs are linked; it is long enough to allow them to run in the leash, by her side, when on horseback. A very small greyhound is begging, by putting its paws against her green cut velvet farthingale, as if jealous of her attention. The whole composition of this historical portrait recals, in strong caricature, the elegant lines of Dryden :

"The graceful goddess was arrayed in green;

About her feet were little beagles seen,

Who watched, with upward eyes, the movements of their queen." The building seen in the picture behind the queen's left shoulder, represents the lower court of Hampton Court Palace, before the trees had grown up by the wall bounding the green, or the gate was altered by Charles II. It has been said the scene was Theobalds, (the queen's favourite hunting-palace, now defunct ;) but many of the features still coincide with the court of Hampton Palace, nearest the river. The queen appears to have stood on the pretty triangular plain, fronting the royal stables, which now appertain to the Toy Hotel. This plain, in the eras of the Tudors and Stuarts, (and perhaps of the Plantagenets,) was the tilting place, and indeed the grand play-ground of the adjoining palace. Here used to be set up moveable fences, made of net-work, called toils, or tois, used in those games in which barriers were needed, from whence the name of the stately hostel on the green is derived.

1 Nichols' Progresses, vol. ii. p. 668.

2 Hampton Palace was a residence of Elizabeth of York; this is evident from her privy purse expenses. George duke of Clarence was ranger of Bushy Park. The stables of the Toy are much older than Wolsey's building

The queen was standing on this green, ready to mount, when Van Somers drew this picture. Her black-a-moor groom had just led from under the noble arch of the royal stables, (which may be supposed opposite to the queen,) her tame fat hunter, accoutred with the high pommelled crimson velvet side-saddle, and rich red housings fringed with gold. Her painter, Van Somers, has added this notation at the left corner of the picture, on which he has, with Dutch quaintness, imitated a scrap of white paper, stuck on with two red wafers-" Anna R. Dei Gratia Magna Brit., France, Hibernia. Etatis 43."

The affection subsisting between the queen and her brother, the king of Denmark, was great; his second visit to England had no object but the pleasure of seeing her and giving her a happy surprise. He arrived in Yarmouth Roads, July 19, 1614, accompanied by his lord-admiral and lord-chancellor; he landed privately, travelled with post-horses through Ipswich, and slept at Brentwood, without the slightest idea of his royal rank transpiring on the road. Thus, incognito, he arrived at an inn in Aldgate, where he dined; from thence he hired a hackney-coach,' and bent his course to the queen's court at Somerset House, where he entered her presence-chamber before any one of her household was aware of his arrival in England. His royal sister was not in her presence-chamber at the moment; she was dining privately in the gallery. While the king of Denmark mingled unknown with the courtiers, who were awaiting queen Anne's entrance into the sence-chamber, Cardel, the dancer, looked in his face very earnestly, and then said to a French gentleman, one of her majesty's officers, "that the stranger-gentleman, close by,

pre

This narrative is drawn from a contemporary letter, written by Mr. Lorkin to sir Thomas Puckering. It shews hackney coaches were in common use in the reign of James I. The term hackney, merely means something in common use: it was an English word in the time of Henry VIII. and bore the same meaning. This is not the only instance of hackney coaches being in common use in the reign of James I. Bishop Goodman, in his gossiping memoir of the court of that prince, tells, that when the archbishop of Spalatro, a temporary convert to the church of England, was seeking to return to his own country and old religion, having sold his own coach, and all he could turn into money, he hired a hackney coach, and, sitting at the side, went to every noted bookseller's shop in London, asking them to sell him books, which he knew they had not, and all to shew that he was not a prisoner, as reported. It must not, however, be supposed that these coaches, or any other, at this epoch, resembled the coaches in present use : they were rather like small benched waggons, with leather curtains.

was the greatest resemblance to the king of Denmark he ever saw in his life." The Frenchman had seen the king on his previous visit to England, and the moment his attention was drawn to him, recognised his countenance. He immediately ran to his royal mistress, and told her that her brother was certainly in her palace. The queen treated the news with scorn, as an idle fancy. While the matter was in discussion, the king of Denmark entered the gallery, and raising his hand as a signal of silence to the attendants, he approached his sister's chair, who sat with her back to him, and putting his arms round her ere she was aware, gave her a kiss; "whereby she learned the verity of that she had before treated as falsehood." The queen, in great joy, took off the best jewel she wore that day, and gave it to the Frenchman whose tidings she had mistrusted; she next dispatched a post with the news to king James, who was absent on a distant progress, and then devoted all her attention to her brother's entertainment. King James made such haste home from Nottinghamshire, that he was at Somerset House on the Sunday, where he, with the queen, the king of Denmark, and prince Charles, were present at a sermon preached by Dr. King, bishop of London.

The politicians of the day exhausted their ingenuity in guessing what great scheme or necessity had induced this flying visit of the royal Dane. After all, they were forced to conclude that it was the mere yearning of natural affection in the wish to spend a week with his sister. Hawking, hunting, bear-baiting, and running at the ring, were the daily diversions of the king of Denmark, and plays were acted every night for his entertainment, Sunday excepted, on which evening, he entertained the English court, at his expense, with fireworks, in Somerset House Gardens, after a manner of his own devising. He seems to have had a peculiar taste and genius for pyrotechny; for these fireworks were the most beautiful and successful ever exhibited in England.

It was guessed that king Christiern meant to have complained of repeated insults that had been offered to the queen by the Somerset faction, especially by the earl of Northampton, but, finding that nobleman just dead, and the favouritism of Somerset on the decline, he abstained from all allusion to former grievances. Christiern took

leave of his royal sister, August 1st, and went, with king James and prince Charles, to Woolwich, where they were received by the famous ship-builder, Phineas Pett,' who shewed the royal party a beautiful ship, nearly finished, called the Mer Honneur. From Woolwich, the two kings went to Gravesend, where they dined together at the Ship Tavern. Finally, king James escorted king Christiern to his own ship, which had come round from Yarmouth. After this visit, Christiern saw his sister no more; but he was in continual correspondence with her, of the most affectionate nature, till her death. Since the insult offered to the princess of Cleves by Henry VIII., little intercourse had subsisted between England and Germany, however desirable it was that a mutual interest should unite nations where the reformation was professed. It was to the numerous family connexions of James the First's consort, that the close intercourse England has maintained with Germany for the last two centuries, may be traced. The queen's sisters married the dukes of Brunswick and Hesse, and the heirs of those dominions were, as they are at present, near kinsmen of the royal family of Great Britain.

At this very juncture, occurred the poisoning of sir Thomas Overbury, in the Tower. This was the effect of the vengeance of the countess of Somerset, because he had endeavoured to prevent her marriage with Somerset after her divorce from the earl of Essex. Somerset was, at that time, lord-chamberlain, a function that fitted the calibre of his intellect far better than that of confidential secretary to the king. To this office (which seems synonymous with that of favourite), there was now another aspirant, much patronised by the queen. This was an English youth, of elegant manners and person, named George Villiers, first taken notice of by the king, owing to his resemblance to the beautiful head of St. Stephen, in one of the Italian master-pieces at Whitehall. From this resemblance was

James II.'s favourite ship-builder was likewise named Phineas Pett. Naval architecture was a science which rose under the patronage of the Stuart kings, who all understood its principles. James IV. was the best practical naval architect of his day. It is certain that naval architecture in this island owes as much to James IV. as in Russia it does to Peter the Great, for when he built the greatest ship ever known in this island, he planned her himself, and worked in her with his own royal hands, as an example to his destructive countrymen. Alarmed at the navy his brother-in-law was creating, Henry VIII. ordered the construction of still larger ships, and gave great encouragement to his navy.